Photo by Eric Ayres Members of Wheeling City Council on Tuesday night returned to council chambers for the first time since October. Council meetings had been held in the second floor courtroom as a multimillion-dollar renovation inside the City-County Building took place on the first floor of the facility over the past several months. From left are council members Tony Assaro, Ben Seidler and Connie Cain, City Manager Robert Herron, Mayor Denny Magruder, Vice Mayor Jerry Sklavounakis and council members Ty Thorngate and Dave Palmer.

WHEELING – City leaders in Wheeling on Tuesday night approved legislation to move forward with the long-awaited Clay School demolition project, which should be completed by the end of this summer.

During Tuesday night’s meeting of Wheeling City Council, an ordinance received a second reading and a unanimous vote to award a contract in the amount of $459,300 to Raze International of Shadyside for the work.

“I think we should take just a brief moment to enjoy this vote,” Councilman Ben Seidler said after a motion to approve the ordinance was brought to the floor. “Other than that, let it rip.”

Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder noted that he was happy to see the legislation come before council after years in the making.

“That motion is certainly approved and welcomed,” the mayor said.

The cost of the demolition is to be paid with $319,440 from a West Virginia Environmental Protection Agency DLAP (Dilapidated Properties Program) grant and another $139,860 from the city’s Project Fund. Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said the city has a deadline with the DLAP program to have the project finished by the beginning of September, which is reflected in the contract with Raze International.

“The project has to be underway by May 17 and completed by Sept. 1,” Herron said.

Councilwoman Connie Cain, who represents the Ward 3 neighborhood of East Wheeling and resides near the property, was happy to cast a vote to move ahead with the demolition of the sprawling, 75,000-square-foot structure that for years has stood vacant.

“It has been a long process, and finally we’re getting ready to demo the Clay School building,” Cain said. “We’re looking forward to what’s next in the process.”

Once the site is cleared, work should be underway to assemble a funding package to construct a new indoor recreational facility at the site, which is located adjacent to the outdoor fields of the J.B. Chambers Memorial Recreation complex.

The city manager said the DLAP program has been a huge help in getting transformative demolition projects like the Clay School demo funded.

“I’m very happy to report that the state legislature included in their budget $10 million for this program, and the governor has signed that budget, so there will be another allocation of DLAP money available for the entire state,” Herron announced Tuesday night. “It has to be divvied up around the state, but the city of Wheeling has been a huge benefactor of this program.”

Herron said three residential demolition contracts, the Wheeling Inn demolition project – which cleared the way for the coming Wheeling Gateway Center on Main Street, and now the Clay School have all been funded with DLAP grants.

“We’re very thankful that we’ve had those funds and that the state legislature saw the value of that program, as well as the governor, and has funded it for another year,” Herron said, noting that it is anticipated that the city will submit an application for additional funds for future demolition projects.

There was an air of excitement and relief during Tuesday night’s Wheeling City Council meeting, which was the first meeting of 2026 to be held in city council chambers. In fact, council had to meet in the second floor courtroom since mid-October as the City-County Building’s $12 million renovation project made its way to the first floor and displaced several offices in recent months.

“Today, we get to return here to our digs – city council,” the mayor said. “It’s been a long time, so I think we’re all very happy to be back here tonight. Hopefully, we’ll know how to record our votes once again.”

Not only were council members able to return to electronic voting for the first time in months, the newly refurbished chambers showed many noticeable improvements. Like all areas of the building, new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, ceilings and other upgrades have been part of the renovations.

“As the mayor indicated, we’re happy to be back in the council chambers this evening,” Herron said. “They look great, and we appreciate the county staff and their work in getting new carpeting, painting, obviously the new ceilings and lights, and the new HVAC is all working out very nicely.”

Some city offices that are located on the first floor are yet to move back from their temporary locations, officials noted, but things should be back to normal very soon.

“We do anticipate that the Finance Department will be able to move into their space within the next two to three weeks,” Herron said. “So we’re seeing the finish line on this project. I think the last two areas are the Water Utility Accounting Department as well as the Finance Department, there’s just some tweaking that needs to be done there. But they should be back here in the next few weeks.”

Council members made no changes to the city’s proposed 2026-27 fiscal year General Fund Budget, totaling more than $42.3 million, and Coal Several Budget, totaling $100,000, and as expected, voted unanimously on resolutions to approve both.

In other action Tuesday night, the mayor gave a shout out to the Wheeling Park Speech and Debate Team, which recently won yet another state championship.

“This is the 46th consecutive year that the folks at Wheeling Park High School have won that award,” Magruder said, noting that a proclamation from the city will be forthcoming. “Congratulations on a spectacular job.”

Councilman Ty Thorngate also extended well wishes to the Wheeling Park Hockey Team, which is in Minnesota this week competing in the national championship games.

“They play (Wednesday) at 11:45 a.m. against the Spokane (Washington) Chiefs, they play Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. against the NWA (Northwest Arkansas) Ice Hogs, and Thursday they play the Gillette (Wyoming) Grizzlies at 3:45 p.m.,” Thorngate said. “So good luck to them, and hopefully they’ll bring us back a national championship.”